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The purpose of this chapter is to give an account of the body rights that are relevant to transplantation. The chapter first explains the idea of moral rights. It then argues that we have rights of bodily integrity and rights to individual autonomy, which is characterized as ‘personal sovereignty’. The chapter develops a model of personal sovereignty in the light of apparently conflicting practices and of the doctrine of informed consent in medicine. It concludes by replying to some criticisms of a rights approach. In addition to giving its own account of rights, to be used later in the book,...

The purpose of this chapter is to give an account of the body rights that are relevant to transplantation. The chapter first explains the idea of moral rights. It then argues that we have rights of bodily integrity and rights to individual autonomy, which is characterized as ‘personal sovereignty’. The chapter develops a model of personal sovereignty in the light of apparently conflicting practices and of the doctrine of informed consent in medicine. It concludes by replying to some criticisms of a rights approach. In addition to giving its own account of rights, to be used later in the book, the chapter also introduces concepts, such as negative and positive rights, autonomy, informed consent, and ownership, that figure prominently in discussions of transplantation.